Public health experts warn about drug-resistant gonorrhea

Since the 1930s, gonorrhea has developed resistance to a number of antimicrobials. But while there has always been another type of drug that could fight the disease, public health experts now say the disease is strengthening against the last class of antibiotics known to be an effective treatment — cephalosporins.

It’s of particular concern here in California, where stronger strains of gonorrhea have historically appeared first in the United States. Bay Area counties typically have higher rates of gonorrhea than most in the state, in part because the disease disproportionately affects African Americans and men who have sex with men. San Francisco had the highest rate of gonorrhea of any county in the state in 2011.